Modular difficulty system is now live!You can now increase difficulty of the missions and earn rewards for beating them!

Before starting the mission, now you're taken to mission overview screen. There you can enable different challenges that make mission harder.

You can:

Increase damage enemies deal.

Increase enemy armour.

Add chance to encounter dreadnoughts.

Increase chance to encounter modified enemies.

Choose to be bombarded by bombardment stations.

Choose to lose all earned parts and experience if you fail to complete the mission.

Increase mission length.

Increase ether cost of abilities.

You can enable as much challenges as you want.​​More challenges means that you will get more and higher grade parts/amplifiers if you will complete mission!

No need to worry about not being able to hold so much parts and amplifiers!Now inventory becomes bigger when you fill it up!Additionally, new inventory supports item stacking, you can have hundreds of amplifiers and fill just few inventory slots.

Keep in mind that while inventory is infinite, you cannot start missions if you have more than three inventory pages.​Pages disappear if you empty them.

The last big change of this update is the return of the modified enemies!

You now have chance to encounter enemies with sniper weapons, doubled armour, doubled damage, ether draining and swarmlings inside!

Modified enemies drop optimized and advanced parts.

List of other changes:​

Replaced +x weapon damage part property with +x% damage property.

Now there's one unleash chance part property instead of 4.

Added Amplifier XV that gives part +3% ability unleash chance.

Added Amplifier XVI that gives part +5 aggression.

Added Amplifier XVII that gives part +5 resistance.

Added Amplifier XVIII that gives part +5 mastery.

Added Amplifier XIX that gives part +5 capacity.

Removed laser ink, because it wasn't useful and wasn't working properly.

Graphical update is here!I proudly present one of the most game changing updates in Sector Six history!It is also the last alpha update - with it Sector Six enters beta!

New backgrounds

Sector Six backgrounds have received many improvements – now they behave more realistically, give better illusion of depth and look more interesting because of the color layer.New backgrounds have been added for every region and existing ones were improved.

New animations

New animations has been added for actions that previously had no animations.This includes part installing, region entering and ability upgrading animations.

Combat improvements

Combat is now more fun! Projectiles have better particles, Missile Strike, Spread Mines and Death From Above abilities are faster, dreadnoughts attack only higher level players and are encountered less often, escort missions are less annoying, retreat exploit is fixed and so on!

Interface improvements

I have cleaned up ability interface, moved combat HUD armour, alloy and ether bars closer to the center of the screen, added loot box to the mission results interface, updated floating text system and improved part placing code, now placing parts in the building field is easier.

​Beta

Now that alpha is finally over, there will be a lot more content updates!This should be the most interesting development phase, First beta update will be modular difficulty system and infinite inventory.Modular difficulty system will allow players to make game harder for rewards, that will allow them to make game ever harder!

New Sector Six version can now be downloaded!The biggest change of this massive update is the whole combat!

Abilities

Abilities has been reworked!You cannot spam abilities anymore, after using an ability, it will have to cool down.That means in order to fight efficiently, you must fill your ability bar with abilities.Using many abilities instead of one should make combat much more exciting!Abilities can also be unleashed. Unleashing ability is like making a critical hit in other games, except that every ability does something unique when unleashed.Please note that most of abilities cannot be unleashed yet.

​Attributes

Now there are four attributes, one for each class - aggression, resistance, mastery and capacity!Attributes are like passive abilities, except they have no cap and have dominant bonus.Dominant bonus is only active if class of the attribute is dominant.For example capacity, carrier class attribute, will grant damage bonus if player has spent most technology points on carrier class abilities.

​Enemies

A lot of changes has been made to enemies!Destroying breakable enemy segments is now the key to weakening or even destroying enemies!Enemies now have destructible weapons, armour, weak points, repairing pylons...More segments will come in future with new enemies.Enemies now use more interesting attacks and now can have up to six of them!

﻿Shields

Now player and enemies can shield themselves!Shield protects from abilities and projectiles, except piercing ones.

New boss

New boss has been added! Armoured colony seeker owns three repairing pylons, six deadly attack abilities and three guardian minions.Defeating armoured colony seeker will reward player with three optimized or better parts!

​Control customization

Now player is able to customize the way game is controlled!Don't like holding Q to use alloy container?Change it any other key on the keyboard!

​New parts

Now spaceship parts can have unleash chance and attribute increasing properties!Amount of possible unique parts has vastly increased, although not all of those part properties are useful yet.​Mac and Linux

My publisher has helped me to compile Sector Six for Linux and Mac platforms!Hopefully more people will be able to enjoy Sector Six.​Minor improvements

With so many changes made, I'm sure at least some of them require tweaking.I will continue working on combat after this update, but I need your feedback!Glitch? Overpowered ability? Annoying enemy? Unfair difficulty?Leave a comment and I'll try to fix the problem!

The future?

After this update, I will be making new tutorial, polishing new combat and adding content like new abilities and enemies.Aside from that, I will work with my publisher to make Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter campaigns!Keep an eye on updates!

Until next week, I'll be waiting for your feedback!

PS.: This version has no tutorial and story mission II. This is temporary.

I've been working on new combat system for a month now and I feel like it's time to show what I've done, before continuing combat overhaul.

It's an early version, a mere prototype of a new combat system, so beware of unfair difficulty, poor balance, unfinished graphics, unfinished abilities, wrong sound effects and glitches!

So, what is exactly different in test version?

​Difficulty. I'm trying to make combat more interesting, more complex and, automatically, more difficult.Enemies now can use really powerful abilities, that could easily destroy unprepared player!Right now game is very hard, even unfair, but I intend to lower difficulty at least a little in future.

﻿Controls.Now you move spaceship using arrow keys and activate abilities by pressing or holding 1-9.

​Shields.Now player and enemies can activate shields. Shields soak all the damage, which means that while shield is active, you don't take damage!Activate your shield by pressing 3, when enemies fills screen with more missiles than you can avoid! To remove enemy shields, press 4. This ability is also useful for destroying probes.

Ability unleashing.Now abilities have chance to be unleashed, if they are upgraded to level 5 or higher.When ability is unleashed, it's behavior changes, for example, your basic attack ability will release additional missiles, doubling or even tripling damage dealt by that ability! Currently only 2 of 5 abilities can be unleashed. In future every ability will have unleashed form! This is like critical hits in other games, just more interesting.

Another update is here!The most important change is the new save system, better than old save system in every aspect.

First, it should work for everyone.Old save system had odd habit of not working for no clear reason.I hope the new one will work for everyone!

Second, three save slots instead of one!Players will be able to start new game and don't lose old game.​Third, now there's an auto save option.Just enable it and after end of every mission, no matter completed or failed, game will be saved to chosen save slot.

I have made few other changes, mostly fixes to the problems encountered in version 0.3.0:​

Updated hard mode rewards, now they are rarer and amplifiers can only be applied to part once.

Fixed dust cloud glitch, that used to occur when running out of the Elder Mechanism damage boost while inside dust cloud.

Fixed minor issues with alloy containers.

Fixed other minor issues.

Improved tutorial.

Now destruction missions, spawned while hard mode is enabled, requires to destroy more minions to complete the mission.

Your spaceship now deforms less when moving to the bottom or top of the screen. I have not found way to fix this problem completely yet.

Changed few item names. For example, parts that give armour now are called armoured.

Fixed savior achievement, now it will track secure regions correctly.

Aegis achievement is now easier, but in future there will be perfect aegis achievement, which will be as hard as old aegis.

Ultimate destroyer achievement is now harder.

Fixed Spacehip typo that was on Spaceship button. Yep, it was right there since version 0.3.0, it's in screenshots, in trailer, everywhere. To those who noticed - well done! =]

It should be easier to avoid enemy shots now. But it doesn't really matter.

Because tomorrow I'm starting to work on new combat system!

Ever since release of the alpha version, I've got many different comments.But all that feedback can be summarized to everything is great about Sector Six, except combat.

And now it's time to fix it!Combat overhaul is going to be the biggest Sector Six update ever, that will completely change the way game is played.

Here's my plan:

Eliminate ability spamming and encourage player to use many different abilities by adding cool-downs to abilities.

Make player and enemies fire in many different angles, to make combat less horizontal and less repetitive. I also want to make combat more skill based. There might be abilities that will require player to pass precise aiming/timing mini-games to be activated.

Make enemy part breaking more than just decorative effect. Enemies will have weak spots, destroy-able weapons, explosive cores, fragile armour, etc.

Make enemies use abilities just like player. Some of these abilities will be so powerful, that player will have to use complex ability combinations to survive them.

Make abilities have unleash chance. When ability gets unleashed, it's effects become stronger or even change completely. Abilities can be unleashed only if they are upgraded to level 5 or higher, encouraging ability upgrading.

Make fusion abilities. These abilities will be only activated, if player uses three specific abilities in a row. For example if you activate unleash weapons, then beam shot and finally reveal weakness abilities, reactor overload fusion ability will be activated. Fusion abilities can also be unleashed, if you add fusion unleash chance boosting parts to your spaceship.

Add attributes. In classic RPG's there are usually some sort of attributes, like strength, intellect, wisdom... I want something like that in Sector Six, to increase depth of both ability upgrading and spaceship building.

Add shield mechanic. Since in Sector Six spaceships keep increasing in size, in higher levels it becomes impossible to avoid enemy projectiles. To solve this problem, there will be abilities that will put shield around spaceship, that will prevent spaceship from taking damage. To make shield not too good, some enemies will be able to break shields. There will also be shielded and shielding enemies. And so, I will be able to give player abilities that break enemy shields. Possibilities are unlimited!

Make abilities interact with other abilities. I want abilities to work like cards in Hearthstone and other card games. For example, some abilities will have negative effects, that player will be able to counter using other abilities. Spaceship damaging, high damage dealing ability will not damage spaceship if it will be activated after activating shielding ability. Then shield provided by shielding ability can be detonated to deal extra damage to enemies. Which will activate fusion ability. Which will be unleashed, destroying everything!

Make non-weapon spaceship parts as useful as weapon parts.

Make bosses more interesting and less broken.

That's just bunch of ideas, but I hope I can make them work.Whatever happens, I promise that combat overhaul will make combat at least a little better!

Until next time!Don't forget to tell me if something is wrong.​Especially if something is wrong with new save system.There's huge chance that I didn't noticed some big problem!

After six months of updates, Sector Six returns bigger, faster and better!

New interfaces.

I have completely reworked all interfaces, including battle HUD and main menu!Now interfaces are ﻿easier to use, provide more information and are more aesthetically pleasing!

​Achievements.

Old information system has been replaced with achievements!In this version you can achieve 20 achievements, but in future there should be around 100!Achieving achievement unlocks fragments of game lore and in future - access to special hidden regions.

​60 FPS.

Sector Six 0.1.5 was running 30 frames per second.Sector Six 0.3.0 is running 60 frames per second!That means everything that moves in game will move smoother!

Hard mode.

I have updated enemy stat formula, now enemy armour is based on how much parts your spaceship can have.
That means enemies will always be challenging.
If you still feel like combat is too easy, now there's a hard mode!
If you turn it on, all enemies will have traits, double armour and damage.
It doesn't just make enemies much harder, it also rewards you with double experience and chance of receiving special items.
These items are used to upgrade your spaceship parts, charge their appearance and even duplicate them!

​Etalons reworked.

The most powerful spaceship parts, etalons, has been reworked!Now they have random stats, unique sprites and cool random names, getting two identical etalon parts is almost impossible!

New missions.

Escort and resurrection missions has been added!In escort missions you have to defend fragile ammunition carriers until they reach their destination point.In resurrection missions, you have to destroy ruins to gather data, that the Elder Mechanism will use to recreate destroyed regions.During recreation, that takes sixty seconds, you'll have to survive the revenant attacks!

​New music.

My composer Bert Cole has composed 18 tracks just for Sector Six!You will no longer get bored by same music playing over and over again.

Hundreds of small improvements.

Alongside big updates, I have made hundreds of small changes that should improve quality of the game. These small improvements include better alloy containers, balanced spaceship part properties, more interesting bosses, better grammar, more useful abilities, improved tutorial and new region backgrounds.

​The future.

Now I am planning to work on better save system and after that - new combat system!New save system will allow players to have multiple saves and to save automatically, plus, it should work for all players, unlike current save system.New combat system will be massive update, that will change everything! Enemies will become more interesting, breakable enemy parts will matter, combat won't require mouse, there will be many new abilities, players will be able to pause or rebind keys, abilities will no longer be spam-able and so on!

Now you can dismantle ship parts to earn iron, which is used to refill alloy containers.

Inventory increased by 8 slots.

Building field was slightly increased.

You can now hold E to close dialogues faster.

Nomad class unlocked, new weapon and abilities.

New part designs are now unlocked on lower levels.

New enemy.

New sound effects.

New tutorial!

I'm sure I missed something, have fun exploring new version!Don't forget to tell me if you dislike something/see something broken, I will do everything I can to fix it.Next update is probably full screen mode for most, if not all resolutions and maybe some new content, like new enemy!

Various features that should help new players to get in game has been implemented.

New enemies added:

Veteran

Sniper

Mosaic

Barrager

Obelisk

Assault carrier

Invasion core

Onslaught leader

Improved technologies and abilities:

You can now see how much technology points you have.

You now spend technology points to unlock and even upgrade abilities.

You can now reset and get back spent technology points.

Updated ability tooltips to provide more information.

Inactive elder blades ability has been removed.

Jam engines ability renamed to immobilize.

Ability effects has been re-balanced.

New abilities added:

Reap armour

Execution system

Aggravating ray

Part limit has been added to balance ship growth:

Limit increases with your level, making leveling even more important.

Since there's no level cap, your ship size is only limited to building field size!

Limit was implemented, because I can't add shops and other ways to obtain parts without it.

Ship would quickly become enormous!

Part limit also gives depth to ship building.

Previously you would just place obtained parts, now you will have to choose which parts to use.

Graphic improvements:

Some areas now have unique backgrounds, in future all areas will have them.

Level up graphical effects added.

Ability graphical effects added/updated.

Effect to indicate that you are taking damage added.

New mission type added - encounter!

Instead of killing many minions, you will have to kill one of three strong unique minions.

Completing encounter missions will give you improved rewards.

Three new reward types added:

Experimental or better ship part reward.

Random reward, it can reward with experience, technology reset or part.

Technology reset & 2 technology resets reward.

To all who played first version and helped to improve it - huge thanks! Development is still not over, so I hope you guys will continue to help me.Sorry, that this update has no new story missions! I am planning to do massive changes to game engine and I couldn't implement story without these changes.